The Theme Park

A short guide to the Alton Towers theme park: the rides, thrills and people behind them. Researched and written by Phoebe Haviland, former Stafford College A-Level student.

Alton Towers has grown from its humble beginnings as Saxon hill fort in the 700s. Following the construction of Corkscrew in 1980, themed lands have evolved, attractions re-themed, re-named and re-tracked. Many of the attractions that have come and gone have achieved icon status at the park or can be remembered through childhood nostalgia.

Like most theme parks, Alton Towers is split up in different areas: namely X Sector, The Dark Forest, Mutiny Bay, Katanga Canyon, Adventure Land, Cloud Cuckoo Land, CBeebies Land, The Towers, The World of David Walliams, Towers Street, Forbidden Valley and Gloomy Woods. Each has had different names and themes in the past: join me as I follow the theme park’s journey to become the attraction it is now.

We will start by wandering to the left as you enter the ticket barriers. Forbidden Valley (previously Aqualand and Thunder Valley) held plenty of iconic rides like the Beastie, Ripsaw and Thunder Looper. Some of its most famous rides have been rethemed: Air began with a Heroes sponsorship (yes, the Christmas chocolate box) and then became an interspace expedition with VR elements. Nemesis was transformed in the 2023 season to return with a vengeance; and some rides like Nemesis: Sub-Terra were left empty but reopened for 2023, refurbished and working much better than when it opened in 2012. Forbidden Valley houses plenty of scare mazes such as Project 42, referencing the story of the Nemesis and the fake military group, the Phalanx.

Gloomy Woods have had minor changes since it was opened in 1992, the ride building has remained the same, but with different residents: the original haunted house, Duel; The Haunted House Strikes Back and now poor little Emily Alton haunting the Alton Manor. Every version of this house has featured a terrifying giant spider: The Haunted House even has a whole section of its track named the Hall of Spiders (the most terrifying thing the park has to offer in my opinion. The newest version of the house, Curse at Alton Manor, is based on an old queue feature from the original Haunted House: a charming reference to previous, often overlooked, park experiences.

Moving into the park towards the lake we find Katanga Canyon, home to the Congo River Rapids and Runaway Mine Train, and Mutiny Bay. Mutiny Bay, also known as Ingestre Center, Aqualand and Merrie England, houses Wickerman, Heave Ho!, Shark Bait Reef and Marauder’s Mayhem. The Wickerman, Alton Tower’s only wooden rollercoaster is already iconic: alongside the log flume which Wickerman replaced! A huge animal lived in the log flume: a giant duck (what is with Alton Towers and big animatronic animals?).

Let us head further into the park, towards the Towers, Dark Forest, and The World of David Walliams. Dark Forest is now home to Thr13teen and Rita, but its most iconic ride was The Corkscrew: the ride which arguably made Alton Towers the place we know today. The Corkscrew opened in 1980 and lasted 44 years at the park: in 2008, it was finally retired to make way for Th13teen. The Corkscrew saw many changes during its reign: in 2005, Rita: Queen of Speed opened next door in Dark Forest (at the time Ugg Land, rethemed in 1999 from Festival Park and the Talbot Centre) where it originally had an American drag race theme. When Th13teen joined the mix the area was completely rethemed to the Dark Forest to unify the land’s creepy aesthetic.

The Tower ruins are the focus of the park, and the first thing you see when you walk down Tower Street. The ruins have a rich history, involving zoos, model trains, beautiful restored stained-glass windows, the gardens and the historic buildings themselves. Most of this area is not explorable for the visiting crowds other than as the exit of Hex: Legend of the Towers. Hex opened in 2000 and is the only ride element within the Tower walls: the queue system is in the Towers, the ride mechanism itself is in a different structure. This ride tells the legend of the Chained Oak tree (with a lot of creative liberty) although it has been temporarily closed since 2023.

The Dungeons opened in 2019 where the Charlie and Chocolate Factory boat ride once stood, situated close to Cloud Cuckoo Land and the World of David Walliams. The Dungeons tell the darker stories of Staffordshire through a walkthrough and boat ride attraction, and hosts seasonal scare fest mazes. This land is in contrast to Cloud Cuckoo Land, Alton Towers’ offer for younger visitors  (once Talbot Street, Land of Make Believe and Cred Street) and the World of David Walliams with Flavio’s Fabulous Fandango, Gangsta Granny, Raj’s Bouncy Bottom Burp, Royal Carousel and Cuckoo Cars Driving School. The area used to have a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Boat Ride, Twirling Toadstool, the Ice Age Theatre and Frog Hopper. Barney the Dinosaur had a short lived residency in this area, performing live shows three times a day next to a themed bouncy castle playground.

X-Sector, originally Springfields Centre from 1980 to 1983 then Fantasy World from 1984 and 1997, housed another iconic Alton Towers Ride: the Black Hole (my personal top three being Corkscrew, Thunder Looper, Black Hole and the Flume as a honorable mention just for the giant duck). This indoor coaster was well-known for its dome shaped ride building and its spiral lift hill, considered to the British Space Mountain by some for its ride experience in the darkness of outer-space. It neighbored Energizer (also Boneshaker when it was moved to Ug Land), Enterprise (which closed 2021) and Submission. The Black Hole closed in 2005, and the building was repurposed for scare mazes like the Boiler Room (2008 – 2011) and Carnival of Screams (2012 – 2013). The tent eventually made way for a record breaking roller coaster, the Smiler, with the most inversions on a single roller coaster, which was based on a 2012 scare maze called the Sanctuary.

The other coaster in X-Sector was a world’s first vertical drop roller coaster (sorry to spoil the fun, but the drop is actually 87.5 degrees not 90 degrees, because of ride mechanism). Oblivion opened 1998 and had its own noise complaint by the people of Alton village, who claimed the “don’t look down” announcement seconds before the drop increased screaming, making windows and doors shake – the “don’t look down” slogan was removed from the ride. That was not the only complaint: some park goers thought the Fanta sponsorship took way from the futuristic government feeling X-Sector was known for.

Finally, we reach Adventure Land, which saw the popular addition of Spinball Whizzer: a rollercoaster which pings riders around like a pinball machine, which enjoyed a brief Sonic the Hedgehog rebrand with a SEGA partnership. In 1989 the Britannia Building Society Farm next door would have offered guests the chance to see living farm animals, a milking shed and agricultural exhibitions. This evolved in turn into Old Macdonald’s Farmyard Ride: a slightly less realistic rural experience with singing animal animatronics. Traces of this ride remain in the modern CBeebies land: Postman Pat’s Parcel Post route follows the outline of the tractors track from years past.

I couldn’t write about the rides and park’s history without mentioning the man behind so many of the rides we think of when we hear the name Alton Towers. John Wardley, a man as iconic to theme parks as Mr. Miyagi or Daniel LaRusso to the Karate Kid, created or consulted for many of the more modern icons to the park’s coaster roster. His triumphs include Oblivion, Smiler, Nemesis, Duel, Alton Manor, Hex, Air, Wickerman, Th13teen and Nemesis Reborn.

Look out for the third instalment of this three-part Staffordshire theme parks series, in which we explore Merrie England: the theme park that never was.